I use FreeBSD 7 with Gnome , and my system is ON always and I use it for my work and use it for torrent and I use Ktorrent
it is one month , some morning I come to office I see my Gnome is kill and my system is logout from Gnome and go to command line and I have to type

Code:

startx

for start Gnome , when I type

Code:

startx

it take long time to start Gnome and sometimes Gnome dose not start and I have to reboot my system , last week I understand when see my gnome is killed and when I go to

Code:

/var/tmp

and delete all thing and clear this directory and then I type

Code:

startx

I see Gnome start very fast and work good and I do not have to reboot my system

Both GNOME ands KDE are the problems.
In a certain way, XFCE also joins the group.
All try to manage sessions, security, X and the kitchensink. Be a better Windows than Windows (better than worse still is bad )
Obviously they will run into precedence/incompatibility problems sooner or later.
One of which is reserved/mapping memory.

Then, you have OS problems. On a multi-boot machine I need both PS/2 and USB keyboards and mice.

Then you have BIOS problems.

All you can say is:
GNOME version xxx breaks on OS yyy, is bad luck while
GNOME version zzz on OS nnn was working correctly.
GNOME version xxx on OS nnn might not work either.

Well, I've ten major versions (and probably 30 minor versions) of Gnome on FreeBSD, and after the initial problems are worked out of the initial version (the ".1" release) I've not had any real issues with it.

I do think it does not care much for Wine, though. And how it works with CUPS is a major pain in the a**.

mfaridi, you would be served better to take your question to the freebsd gnome mailing list. Joe and Mezz are usually very helpful and responsive, and they know Gnome inside and out. They better, since they are porters and maintainers.

Indeed. That is my main complaint about FreeBSD, incidentally. I have never had the pleasure of having everything installed working properly. As soon as one thing is fixed, another something breaks. That's the ports, not the base system.

Well, that's not quite true. Everything works on my main server. I have not updated it for two years.

Specific to FreeBSD is the habit of upgrading the apps continuously.
You can have a set of apps breaking but have those apps working perfectly if you portsnapped 5 minutes later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrJ

Indeed. That is my main complaint about FreeBSD, incidentally.

That is the major difference between continuously updated systems like FreeBSD and Debian comparing to cascade systems (I coined the term) like OpenBSD and RedHat which one usually updates every 6 months.

My way of avoiding any troubles when I run FreeBSD was to install a snapshot of stable and remain with it until major update (system or application) and then do the fresh installation. I personally burnt myself couple times by unnecessary updating a port three and breaking my system because of dependence issues due to the compilation of the single new port. I also found out that fresh installation is far more efficient way
of keeping your system updated than anything else.

Some of my friends on the another hand use cron to do overnight port fetching and ports updating. That usually work very well until major update which brakes the system. I personally have to hear a single good argument of advantage of continuous updating. For me it boils down that those people who are continuously updating system are doing that in order to have version 2.9999 of some program instead of version 2.9998.

Well, I am in no way compulsive about updating. Usually I do it only to fix certain bugs, and that is only once every few months. Sometimes, but rarely, it is to get new features. But the way the FreeBSD ports are set up, you have to do it on a regular basis, or reinstall. I really hate to reinstall.

On my server, though, it is about the only way. I also use it as a light-duty input station, and it has the pre-modular version of X11 (6.9??), and a bunch of other really stale ports. There practically is no way to update it. So for now, it sits without updating.

Gnome on my main box is a slightly different matter, since I often serve as a test site for the newer versions. I usually find ten or more bugs that are fixed quickly.

In spite of the accolades of many, I think the way ports work is a pain. And it is a real problem. My W2K box is still supported. Just try to get support for FBSD 4.8 or earlier ports.

In spite of the accolades of many, I think the way ports work is a pain. And it is a real problem. My W2K box is still supported. Just try to get support for FBSD 4.8 or earlier ports.

You can look that from different prospective. The freedom that open source project have to brake backward compatibility is a major advantage over the proprietary systems. Just compare Solaris and BSD in terms of complexity.